Canned Salmon Recipes

Here are our favorite canned salmon recipes. We have included only those we actually use at home and on the boat.

Folks who have tasted our salmon at in-store demonstrations will recognize some of the recipes, and we encourage people to think of some of your favorites, and just substitute canned salmon for the protein called for in the recipe. Often canned salmon makes an easier, tastier, more nutritious and economical protein than the one replaced.

Jim’s Best, Easiest Go-To Canned Salmon Recipe

It couldn’t be easier– and these ‘nutritional good guys’ seem to get along very well in this ultimate of easiest recipes.

Wild Alaska salmon

olive oil

onion

Drain a can of ThinkPink, put contents of the can, including highly nutritious skin & bone, into small bowl. Add a teaspoon or two of olive oil, some chopped onion & lightly mix.

Use this on bagels, salads, or just as is. Squeeze on a little lemon juice, or even a little vinegar if you like. If you use Redhead, drain some of the liquid and supplement with a little olive oil in addition to the onion. The olive oil seems to refreshingly lighten the flavor and seems to increase the shelf life of the flavor.

You can also mix the Redhead and the Thinkpink.

Lemony Salmon Coleslaw

This Lemony Salmon Coleslaw recipe keeps well and with loaf of French bread makes an exceptional light summer meal with no cooking. Just open the can! Either Redhead or Thinkpink work well in this recipe, but Redhead’s deeper color is a nice touch.

Toss cabbage, onion, cucumber, along with optional ingredients in large bowl. Prepare dressing and mix in with cabbage mixture. Arrange avocado on top of salad, squeezing lemon juice over avocado to prevent darkening. Serve immediately. Keep chilled.

Dressing

Salmon Curry Cakes with Ginger and Pistachios

With pistachios and ginger these salmon cakes are a little more exotic than usual, but they are delicious and make for a nice lunch the next day. They would also make wonderful appetizers. Redhead or Thinkpink would work equally well in this flavorful recipe.

1. Heat oil in large stock pot or Dutch oven.
2. Add diced potato and onion, saute for 10 minutes
3. Add minced garlic and stir to combine
4. Saute all veggies 10 or 15 minutes more, or until potatoes are fork tender. Add a little water if the potatoes begin to stick.
5. Meanwhile, mash the salmon, including the highly nutritious skin and bone (when mixed in they are undetectable).
6. When potatoes are tender, add frozen corn, corn soup and salmon.
7. Simmer and stir for 10 or so minutes, or until heated through.
8. Add salt & pepper to taste, garnish with chopped green onions and cheese, if desired.

Combine first six ingredients, plus salt and pepper. Make sure to leave in the highly nutritious skin & bones – when mixed they are undetectable. Add in potatoes. Sprinkle in corn meal or flour as needed for a little more binding to the cakes. Form 6 to 8 generous sized cakes about ½ inch thick.

Heat skillet on medium, add 1 TBSP oil, cook until browned, about 3 to 5 minutes on each side. Add oil as needed for subsequent batches. Serve with dill sauce of choice, or even ketchup.

Combine chunked salmon, cranberries, and parsley. In separate bowl, combine the last six ingredients to make viniagrette. Toss vinaigrette with salmon, serve chilled on mixed greens.

Katherine’s Marshal Tito Salmon Cakes

Katherine Zuanich, Jim’s right-hand girl on the Marshal Tito, (yes, she does it all, deck work, piloting the boat) is also a gifted chef. Even while fishing, in Alaska, she used canned Alaska salmon…it is so easy and delicious!

Combine ingredients, including the highly nutritious skin and bone – when mixed they are undetectable. Form into 6 to 8 cakes about ½ inch thick. Heat skillet on medium, add 1 TBSP oil, or as needed, cook each side until brown, about 4 to 5 minutes each side. Serve with rice or on foccacia rolls, seasoned with a mixture of soy sauce, lime juice and Dijon mustard.

Fabulous Salmon Curry Salad

This is a recipe which is traditionally made with chicken breast but which translates beautifully with Thinkpink and or Redhead. We often serve this at store demonstrations as it is so delicious and surprising.

Mix the salmon, including the highly nutritious and edible skin and bones. When mixed they are not detectable. We also recommend, when possible, pre-chilling the unopened cans. Combine with following ingredients and serve on the bread or vegetable of choice.

Warren’s “Everything I Love in One Dish” Pasta

Pasta is another dish which really benefits from the addition of canned salmon. This is an elegant, quick and delicious meal. An added note here, by cooking pasta as the Europeans do, al dente, the pasta will have a lower glycemic index than if it is cooked soft.

Lemony Salmon Burgers

Salmon burgers offer a host of opportunities to create the comfort food that makes memories. How often have we heard from customers, “My grandmother used to make salmon cakes, and I loved them!” This one recipe we like on the boat. We buy large cases of lemons to take to Alaska. Fresh lemons last surprisingly well, and add a nice touch to boat cooking.

Combine ingredients, shape into four cakes. Heat frying pan on medium, when hot add small amount of oil. Cook 5 to 7 minutes on one side, then turn, cooking 3 to 5 minutes more or until nicely browned.

Easy Salmon Chowder

Switching to winter fare, this is a wonderful and easy chowder. You can make extra soup base (not including the milk or seafood) and freeze it for an extra easy meal later on. Incidentally, buying clam juice in 48 oz institutional sizes is a bargain.

Smart Salmon Salad

Smart Salmon Salad was our first formal recipe card recipe, and delicious it is. It is nutritious beyond compare, to boot. We have tinkered with this recipe which first used tuna. It is great as a dip or as a spread, and it is healthy, healthy, healthy.

Combine the salmon with the following ingredients, using just enough mayonnaise to bind.

Irma Beulah’s Salmon Coleslaw

This is an old family favorite recipe, created by none other than Irma Beulah Zuanich, (the greatest grandmother who ever lived) in which we used to use small pink Oregon shrimp, but then we started using canned salmon. Delicious! It is a great summer salad, but we always serve it during the Holidays as well.

Slav Spaghetti (Zuanich Family Slavonian Recipe)

These directions are obviously a verbal, traditional recipe. Many people who taste this declare it their favorite food. The proportions are not scientific, so please adjust seasonings to your taste. The sauce is much more sparingly used than with Italian spaghetti sauce, but the pungent spices more than make up for lack of volume. Cinnamon and allspice, the only spices, are used cautiously and yet should be quite evident. Read the directions through, as I may well backtrack a little midstream. This is DELICIOUS.

Take a 3 lb. lean roast*. Cut off ⅔ and grind it. Also, grind a whole bunch of parsley, stems and all as well as 3 stalks of celery.

Chop 1 onion.

Brown ground meat and onion in oil in largish saucepan until very well done. Meat should crust a little.

Simmer for a couple of hours, covering and uncovering the pot to achieve right consistency**. If it gets too thin, thin with beef broth. Meanwhile. back at the unground chunk of beef, brown in the oven with a little salt and pepper. Brown on all sides. Throw chunk into pot with simmering sauce.

Serve with penne pasta and parmesan cheese.

*Some heretics use very lean hamburger.

**“Right consistency” is easier experienced than described. The liquid is quite thick, kind of, but presence of meat is somewhat thinner than in Italian.

An excellent offshoot of this stuff an untitled dish. People often make the painful decision that they like this better than the above.

Take 3 large jars of sauerkraut. Rinse well, drain and squeeze pretty dry.